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Hyde starts
'no-tech Tuesdays'
WOODSTOCK --- In a move rarely seen since the high-tech world of cell phones, texting, email, and broadband Internet hit classrooms across the country, Hyde School said it will hold a four-day moratorium on the use of technology every Tuesday in September.
The idea for the moratorium, dubbed “No-Tech Tuesdays” by the head of school, materialized after a campus-wide meeting where students and faculty discussed the strengths and obstacles technology provides to those who use it. One common pitfall expressed was the decline of face-to-face interaction as a result of choosing electronic messaging over any other form of communication. Suspending use of technology on “No-Tech Tuesdays” is one way the school hopes to encourage face-to-face connectedness and sharpen social skills.
“So much has changed in a very short time with regard to personal use of technology,” said Hyde Head of School Laura Gauld. “In the past 10 years, we’ve seen a surge of technology, ultra connectivity...anyplace, anywhere...and while most of its effects have been positive, some are not so positive.”
Gauld and her colleagues, who teach teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19, see firsthand how technology has also paradoxically resulted in isolation for many young people, often turning them away from meaningful relationships with their families, friends, and peers. And, while many schools ban the use of cell phones and text messaging, including Hyde School, Gauld contends that those who think the battle to control it should be fought only by setting limits are swimming against the tide.
As the demand for technology rises and changes faster than pressing the ‘send’ button, more and more studies are being conducted that point to it as a major distraction in today’s classrooms. “We’re talking about and tackling this as a community,” said Gauld. “It takes a high level of awareness and fortitude to recognize the common traps we all can fall into with regard to the use of technology because it is a tool that is helpful and fun, to step back and be able to identify what isn’t so great about it—and then do something about it.”
At the end of the month, the school will meet to assess the results of the ‘No-tech Tuesday’ experiment.